The present invention has for its object an identification card made from laminated special paper having distinct authenticity features and providing special protection from forgery.
Such types of cards are known to be used, as data recording media bearing the information, for identity cards, credit cards, workshop cards, passports, and other similar means of identification which, to a great extent, must be proof against forgery and, at the same time, are required to permit an easy forge testing or proof of authenticity by human beings and/or machines.
Plastic cards of this kind, which are made either from solid plastics or from paper-like plastics which are heat-sealed with a plastics material, are well known to be in use as credit cards, cheque holder identity cards, and the like. Such cards are, to only a restricted extent, suitable for meeting the safety requirements placed thereon when used as a means of payment in combination with credit cards, or the like, or as an instrument in control and security systems, because they can easily be identically forged and this often without even causing any difficulties, and do not sufficiently safeguard the establishment of a quick and unambiguous proof of authenticity by everybody. The material itself which is used for manufacturing the cards has no distinct authenticity features whatsoever, i.e., no features of the kind customarily used for protecting other documents, such as bank notes, securities, passports, cheques, and the like, such as watermarks, security threads, and so on. Moreover, the material does not permit of any equivalent processing from a security point of view which would provide for an effective protection from prospective forgers on one hand, and permit an easy and unambiguous establishment of the proof of authenticity by human beings on the other hand, as does the usual type of safety print customary on securities or bank notes of corresponding quality. Inasfar as printing methods are used for applying the designations of organizations and symbols, identical counterfeiting or forgery is possible without causing any difdiculties by means of even the smallest high-quality printers (printing machines) customarily used in the profession.